With driver safety being in question with the rear of the car, despite no carnage at [Talladega Superspeedway], but with teams possibly pushing the limit with tire load in the banked corners at the [Charlotte Motor Speedway ROVAL], do you think playoff drivers will force the issue at all, [with it] being an elimination race? — NASCARfan24, YouTube
There was certainly a feeling across the industry that, after the tire-failure-fest at Texas Motor Speedway that put Alex Bowman out of the car for (at least) a week with concussion symptoms, Talladega was risky.
What we saw was a mostly-clean 500 miles that still featured a season-high 57 official lead changes, a last-lap pass for the win and a margin of victory under a tenth of a second. Only an impressively low four cars failed to finish, a far cry from the 13 DNFs in Talladega’s spring race, 10 of which were related to crash damage.
Which bears the question (or at least, NASCARfan24, the implied first part of your question) … were the drivers taking it easy? To that, I answer with another question (and yet another cinematic misquote for NASCAR Mailbox): Were you not entertained?
While Jeff Gluck’s poll rated this race lower than the spring, I fall squarely into the “good race” camp, and I am leaving Alabama with more confidence in the skills of the NASCAR Cup Series field than I have had in a while.
Was Talladega a good race? 83.3% of you said Yes.
— Ranks No. 7 of 14 Talladega races in the poll (spring race got 86.6%).
— Ranks No. 11 of 30 superspeedway races.
— 15th-best race of this season (17th race out of 31 to get over 80%).
— Jeff Gluck (@jeff_gluck) October 4, 2022
They kept it clean, they drove smarter and still put on a good show. If the Cup Series field survived Talladega, they can survive anywhere.
But that doesn’t mean they will. Since 2018, the ROVAL has been angling to take Talladega’s crown as the meanest track on the schedule, and this might be the year the newcomer finally usurps the legend. Or will it?
I’m going to go out on a limb here: the ROVAL will never again be as wild as it was in its first two races in 2018 and ’19. As the teams and drivers have better learned what to expect from the combination oval-road course (assisted by occasional trips to the infield road course/high banks combo at Daytona International Speedway) we’ve seen a lot fewer leaders drive straight into the tire wall at the TUMS Heartburn Turn on restarts.
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at Frontstretch…